Studies lead to the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Media Arts degree with available concentrations in graphic design, photography, television/video production and Web design. Program Overview The media arts degree program at Robert Morris University offers a stimulating learning environment where students are encouraged to explore their creative interests while developing the necessary tools to build an exciting and rewarding career in the design, communications and television/video production industries. The program equips students with a focused design education experience combined with a real-world business and communications skills curriculum.

About the Program: Program Overview Degree Options Design Studios Academic Media Center Center for Documentary Production and Study Career Opportunities Bachelor-Level Internship Employers Bachelor-Level Hiring Organizations Salary Information

The program utilizes state-of-the-art facilities and is taught by professors who are practicing artists, designers, photographers, and film/video specialists. Visiting professionals from industry who are experts in their fields and student internships make important contributions to the program.

To respond to the increasingly diverse needs of the design industry and the challenge of new technology, all students sample the areas of graphic design, photography, television/video production and Web design. This enables students to choose one of these four areas with confidence for their final concentration.

Degree Options
The program offers four areas of concentration:

Graphic Design: The graphic design field is particularly diverse and continually evolving to adapt to the needs of the communications industry. Students in this concentration gain conceptual and technical skills that encourage flexibility and originality. These abilities are then developed with a focus on specific design applications. Areas addressed include corporate identity, editorial design, advertising, design for print, typography, packaging and Web design.

Photography: The photography concentration is designed for students interested in using photography as a tool for visual communication. Students learn to capture, manipulate, and print photographic images in state-of-the-art digital labs, as well as a traditional darkroom. Courses are career-oriented, and areas covered include studio and commercial photography, photojournalism, the portrait, documentary photography and portfolio preparation.

Television/Video Production: Students in this concentration learn by working behind the scenes and in front of the camera, both inside the studio and out on location. Areas addressed include motion graphics, videography, field production, editing, storyboarding and writing for the media. A regionally recognized faculty teaches the basic and advanced skills students need to be successful, utilizing state-of-the-art facilities. Students can produce their own programs for RMU-TV and get involved in production as early as the first week of their first semester in the program.

Web Design: The escalating development of PDA and cell phone technology has fueled the continued growth of the Internet and the prominence of Web design worldwide. Students in this concentration learn to build from basic coding and animation to advanced interactive design, using cutting-edge facilities on the industry-standard Macintosh platform.

Design Studios
The University's design studios are equipped with Apple G4 and G5 workstations. The learning environment is designed to simulate an actual work setting, and faculty members are working professionals from the local design community. Because they "do what they teach," these talented professionals help students stretch their imaginative and interpretive abilities while challenging them to apply their knowledge and skills to solve complex problems for clients. To ensure individual attention and give students the flexibility to develop individual interests, class sizes are small.

Academic Media Center
The Academic Media Center provides a learning environment for students interested in television, video, audio, photography, multimedia, producing and writing. The Center houses exceptional facilities, including the one of the largest television studios in the region, a television control room, linear and nonlinear editing suites, darkrooms, computer labs and field production equipment. This ensures that students get first-hand knowledge on the same equipment found in broadcast TV stations and corporate communications departments. In addition, the Center produces programming for RMU-TV, which is broadcast throughout campus and to the surrounding community via the local cable television system. Students participate in all phases of RMU-TV, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Student-produced programming includes news, sports, comedy and talk shows.

The Center for Documentary Production and Study
Founded in 2002, the Center for Documentary Production and Study provides students with the opportunity to write and produce documentary films, travel internationally, take special courses, attend film festivals, and meet and learn from documentary professionals from all over the world. To date, students and faculty working together have produced more than a dozen documentaries, some of which have won awards and been shown on broadcast and cable television. In the past five years, more than 100 students have received valuable experience and course credit by writing, producing, editing and screening a wide variety of documentary films. Recent student documentaries include Nursing in Nicaragua, profiling RMU student nurses providing care to poor residents of Managua, and Portrait of a Campaign, a behind-the-scenes look at the 2004 race for the office of Allegheny County chief executive.

Career Opportunities
Employers look for more than good grades and activities; they hire graduates who have specialized skills and diverse experience. The professional portfolio you'll build as a media arts student at RMU will give you a competitive edge in the job market. RMU alumni have found employment in a variety of areas, including advertising, marketing, public relations, television, radio, motion pictures, video and multimedia production, packaging design and brand identity, book publishing (print and electronic), music publishing, editorial design (magazine and newspaper), Web design, broadcast design, fashion promotion, corporate identity design, interactive animation, exhibition and retail design, museum and gallery design, environmental design (signage and typography), corporate communications, design management, corporate media and high school and college communications. Other graduates have gone on to pursue graduate studies, including the interdisciplinary M.S. in Communications and Information Systems degree program at Robert Morris University.

Bachelor-Level Internship Employers
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation; American Eagle Outfitters; Artist's Image Resource; Carnegie Science Center; Children's Museum of Pittsburgh; ESPN Radio; Fox Broadcasting; Fox Sports Television; Giant Eagle; Giant Ideas; Island Def Jam- Universal Music Group; Jack Horner Communications; KDKA-TV; Labwerks Interactive; The Late Show With David Letterman; Maya Design Group; Media Cafe´; Mind Over Media; Pittsburgh Film Office; Pittsburgh Penguins; Pittsburgh Pirates; Pittsburgh Steelers; Production Masters; Roberts Communications; Suzanne DeLaurentiis Productions; Sweetwater Center for the Arts; The View; Wall to Wall Studios; WPXI-TV; WQED-TV; WTAE-TV.

Bachelor-Level Hiring Organizations
Algor; America's Promise; Arizona Cardinals; Bethlehem Haven; CNN; Diabolic Studios; Direct Image & Design (D.i.D.); Food Circus Corp.; Fox Sports Net; FW Dodge Publications/McGraw Hill; Gateway Star Publications; Giant Ideas; GlaxoSmithKline; KDKATV; Longfellow Productions; Media Quest; Mind Over Media; Moon Community Access Television; Norwegian Cruise Lines; Observer Publishing; PaineWebber; Peter Argentine Productions; Pittsburgh Penguins; Pittsburgh Pirates; Pittsburgh Public Schools; Pittsburgh Steelers; Rome Monument; SEIX Investment Advisors; United Jewish Federation; U.S. Steel; Verizon; Western Pennsylvania Humane Society; WHTM-TV; WPXI-TV; WQED-TV; WTOV-TV.

Salary Information
2007 national mean bachelor-level starting salaries by job function: